Tuesday, March 29, 2016

What choice did they really have? Emanuel strong-arms critics into backing him on superintendent

It
seems like unity – but only if you don’t look too closely at the details.

EMANUEL: The winner, for now

For
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday formally made it known he wants Chicago Police
chief of patrols Eddie Johnson to be the department’s new superintendent.

BEFORE
HE COULD make the announcement official, the black and Latino members of the
City Council – who comprise 30 of its 50 members – came out with their own
statement saying they support the idea of Johnson, an African-American male
with nearly 3 decades of experience within the department, getting the top job.

There’s
a lot of politicking that has yet to take place in order for Johnson to get the
post on a permanent basis. But it would seem that he’s not going to get any
significant opposition from the City Council in confirming his choice.

So
Rahm Emanuel has brought peace and unity to Chicago; he has managed to bring
together the various factions of Chicago’s populace to unite us all on the
process toward truly being one people.

Yeah,
right. And I suppose you also think 2016 will be THE YEAR that we get the
all-Chicago World Series (with the White Sox defeating the Cubs 4 games to 1).
It ain’t gonna happen.

FOR
WHAT EMANUEL truly did was put the black caucus, which already had been
critical of the process of picking a new police superintendent, into a position
where it couldn't credibly complain. Even though Emanuel didn’t give in to a
single of their demands about who the new superintendent should be.

Don’t
forget, they wanted prior approval before a nomination was made. They also
wanted a specific person to get the post – and he didn’t get it.

As
for the City Council’s Latino Caucus, they had their own concerns about being
ignored during the process. Interim Superintendent John Escalante was never
seriously considered for the permanent appointment. No Latinos were. If they
were to continue with those gripes, it would be easy for people to put the
political spin that they were being contrarian – and perhaps trying to trigger
some sort of Latino vs. black battle within city government.

In
the end, Emanuel will get to have his say over who becomes the new head of the
Chicago Police Department.

AS
FOR WHETHER that is good or not, we’ll have to wait and see. For the real truth
to all this is whether the public is accepting enough of Johnson in charge that
they’re willing to get off Emanuel’s back that he step down and resign as
mayor.

That’s
never going to happen, but there are some hard-core activists who will not stop
making such a demand. They’re going to be the ones who continue to stir up
resentment about the way this process has taken place.

While
I suspect much of Chicago is more interested in trying to move forward in
resolving a problem that is not unique to our city. The idea that law
enforcement personnel are hostile toward African-American populations is one that
municipalities across the nation ought to deal with!

It
burst out into an open, festering wound with the outcry concerning the shooting
death by a Chicago police officer of a 17-year-old boy, and other incidents in
which young black men wound up being harassed by police.

IT
COST THE former police superintendent his job, resulting in Garry McCarthy
spending some time earlier this year in London trying to pursue a position with
law enforcement there. It gave us the defeat of the state’s attorney just a
couple of weeks ago.

But
to some people, the departure of Emanuel is the only true solution. I’m sure
they’re going to be peeved at the perception that Emanuel managed to control
the process of picking the new superintendent.

I’m
sure what they truly want is the mayor slinking off in failure – similar to how
some people kept up so much political pressure on then-Cook County Board President
Todd Stroger that he ultimately left office in disgrace following the 2010
election cycle.

Can
the same be achieved in the 2019 election cycle when Emanuel faces re-election,
and certain people go all out to try to achieve the same goat – Beat Rahm! –
that they couldn’t achieve on Elections day in either 2011 or 2015?

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.